as there they could not
all come around me at once; and I saw that I could thus better defend
myself. But even with this advantage, the assaults of the animals were
so incessant, and my exertions in keeping them off so continuous, that I
was in danger of falling into their jaws from very exhaustion.

"I was growing weak and wearied--I was beginning to despair for my
life--when on winding my gun over my head in order to give force to my
blows, I felt it strike against something behind me. It was the branch
of a tree, that stretched over the spot where I was standing.

"A new thought came suddenly into my mind. Could I climb the tree? I
knew that they could not, and in the tree I should be safe.

"I looked upward; the branch was within reach. I seized upon it and
brought it nearer. I drew a long breath, and with all the strength that
remained in my body sprang upward.

"I succeeded in getting upon the limb, and the next moment I had crawled
along it, and sat close in by the trunk. I breathed freely--I was safe.

"It was some time before I thought of anything else than resting myself.
I remained a full half-hour before I moved in my perch. Occasionally I
looked down at my late tormentors. I saw that instead of going off,
they were still there. They ran around the root of the tree, leaping up
against its trunk, and tearing the bark with their teeth. They kept
constantly uttering their shrill, disagreeable grunts; and the odour,
resembling the smell of musk and garlic, which they emitted from their
dorsal glands, almost stifled me. I saw that they showed no disposition
to retire, but, on the contrary, were determined to make me stand siege.

"Now and then they passed out to where their dead comrade lay upon the
grass, but this seemed only to bind their resolution the faster, for
they always returned again, grunting as fiercely as ever.

"I had hopes that my friend would be up by this time, and would come to
my rescue; but it was not likely neither, as he would not `miss' me
until I had remained long enough to make my absence seem strange. As it
was, that would not be until after night, or perhaps far in the next
day. It was no unusual thing for me to wander off with my gun, and be
gone for a period of at least twenty hours.

"I sat for hours on my painful perch--now looking down at the spiteful
creatures beneath--now bending my eyes across the great corn-field, in
hopes of seeing some one. At times the